Psalm Meditation 505
First Sunday in Lent
February 21, 2010

Psalm 96
1 O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth.
2 Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day.
3 Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples.
4 For great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods.
5 For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens.
6 Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary.
7 Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength.
8 Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts.
9 Worship the LORD in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth.
10 Say among the nations, "The LORD is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity."
11 Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice; let the sea roar, and all that fills it;
12 let the field exult, and everything in it. Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy
13 before the LORD; for he is coming, for he is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, and the peoples with his truth.
(NRSV)

Since I grew up in large membership congregations and have served small to mid sized congregations I have learned a variety of hymns. This means I will sometimes, perhaps often pick hymns that a particular congregation does not know. Especially in the weeks in which I pick more than one unfamiliar hymn I hear comments and complaints about all these new songs. I have threatened to have a week in which we sing songs that have never been new. This means that we will not sing that week. Most of the time the exchanges are based in fun and they are based in our basic dislike for new things.

The psalmist invites us to sing a new song. We can join in this psalm enthusiastically because we like new things in theory. When new things keep us from doing favorite old things we begin to have a problem. This is not to say that God does not deserve new songs or that we don’t want to find new ways to sing God’s praises so much as it is a painful reminder that we don’t like to be surprised by newness. If we have had some say in things and some control over them we are more willing to give new things a try, however having new things sprung on us will be unnerving to most of us.

Fortunately God is pretty gentle with us most of the time and introduces changes slowly and in small steps. We can handle a small step and a gradual change and every now and then we can handle a large scale change that comes as a major surprise. When big things happen all at once we can get overwhelmed. In those times it is good and comforting to know that through it all God is with us and can comfort us even as we go through head spinning change whether it is good or bad or a bit of each. At some point, after the changes have gone from massive to more gradual we can see again that God is good and that God is present. When we see that God has been with us through all the good and the bad we can sing a new song that is deeper and richer than what we could sing before.

© February 15, 2010